Meals on Wheels delivers food and cheer for Christmas

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – On Christmas Day, the meal assembly line started at 7am in Liliha.

You can call these volunteers at Lanakila Pacific Santa’s elves as they are busy packing a Hawaiian hot meal.

On the menu is hot laulau, kalua turkey, kalo pa’a and haupia.

Volunteer Valaine Vasquez serves up the aloha spirit.

“It’s important to give back to our community to make sure that we care for our kupuna. You never know when you are going to need help so it’s always good to pay it forward and what better day to do than Christmas,” she said.

875 meals are delivered islandwide from Waimanalo to Kahuku to Makaha.

“My husband looked it up and thought it would be a great idea for us to give back to the community so this is actually the first time we are going to do this,” said volunteer Carol Chong.

“We wanted to be a part of the magic of Christmas and the aloha spirit of the island,” she added.

Lanakila Pacific is the largest and only island wide meal delivery service for seniors and people with disabilities.

“Our meal recipients are home bound which means they are not able to get to the grocery store on their own. They are not able to cook and prepare food so a Meals on Wheels program is really important for people to be able to age in place in their own home,” said Lori Lau, director, Lanakila Pacific.

June Kawamoto lives in Pauoa and got a hot meal and special gift.

“I’m thankful that they volunteer because without them, there wouldn’t be any meal,” she said.

“It’s really important for people to have loved ones around them and our meal recipients largely don’t so they are part of our ohana,” said Lau.

It’s a special gift on this holiday and every day of the year.

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